Quán Hòuwèi Wén 全後魏文
Complete Prose Writings of the Northern Wei Dynasty compiled by 嚴可均 嚴可均 (編)
About the work
This file contains the Quán Hòuwèi Wén 全後魏文 section of 嚴可均’s Quán shànggǔ sāndài Qín Hàn Sānguó Liùcháo wén 全上古三代秦漢三國六朝文 (KR4h0176), spanning 60 juàn of prose attributed to writers of the Northern Wei dynasty 北魏 (386–534). The dynastic title 後魏 (“Later Wei”) is used throughout the anthology to distinguish this state from the Three Kingdoms–era Cáo Wèi 曹魏. The file opens with writings attributed to Emperor Dàowǔ 道武帝 (Tuòbá Guī 拓跋珪, 371–409), the Northern Wei’s founding emperor. Primary sources cited throughout include the Wèi shū 魏書, Běi shǐ 北史, and Shuǐjīng zhù 水經注.
The Northern Wei was the most powerful and culturally complex of the Northern Dynasties. Writers of note represented in this section include: Lǐ Dàoyuán 酈道元 (ca. 472–527; whose Shuǐjīng zhù 水經注 prose is among the finest descriptive writing of the era), Yáng Xuànzhī 楊衒之 (6th c.; the Luòyáng qiélánjì 洛陽伽藍記), and the emperors and ministers whose edicts and memorials document the remarkable Sinicization program of Emperor Xiàowén 孝文帝 (r. 471–499). The Northern Wei was also central to the transmission of Indian Buddhism into China; Buddhist figures and texts are accordingly well represented in the later juàn of the file.
For the structure of the broader anthology, see KR4h0176. The adjacent dynastic sections are KR4h0174 (Eastern Wei and Northern Qi), KR4h0175 (Northern Zhou), and KR4h0178 (Three Kingdoms — the Cáo Wèi period from which the Northern Wei distinguished itself).
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The Northern Wei (386–534) was founded by the Tuòbá 拓跋 clan of the Xiānbēi 鮮卑 people and eventually controlled all of northern China. Its 148-year history falls into two broad cultural phases: an early period of conquest and partial assimilation, and a second phase after Emperor Xiàowén’s 493 CE relocation of the capital to Luòyáng and his sweeping Sinicization edicts, which mandated Chinese dress, surnames, and language at court. The Quán Hòuwèi Wén reflects both phases: early imperial documents show the hybrid Xiānbēi-Chinese court culture, while the Luòyáng period produces prose indistinguishable in style from contemporary Southern Dynasties writing. Lǐ Dàoyuán’s prose descriptions, reconstructed from the Shuǐjīng zhù, are the literary highlight of this section.
Yán Kějūn drew primarily on Wèi Shōu’s 魏收 Wèi shū (554) and Lǐ Yánshòu’s 李延壽 Běi shǐ (659) to assemble this 60-juàn section. The Wèi shū’s extensive monograph on Buddhism (Shìlǎo zhì 釋老志) provided additional material for the Buddhist and Daoist prose in the later juàn. The Shuǐjīng zhù is cited as a source for Lǐ Dàoyuán’s descriptive passages. For full compilation history and scholarly significance of the parent anthology, see KR4h0176.
Translations and research
- Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. §30.3.2.
- Qián Zhōngshū 錢鐘書. Guǎnzhuībiān 管錐編. Vols. 3–4. Zhōnghuá, 1979.
- Knechtges, David R., and Taiping Chang, eds. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide. Leiden: Brill, 2010–2014. See entries for Lǐ Dàoyuán and Yáng Xuànzhī.